New Show 'Pupparazzi' Turns Shelter Dogs into Stars in Hopes of Finding Them Forever Homes
If you are a dog lover, then Nat Geo WILD’s newest show, “Pupparazzi,” may be your new favorite show. “Pupparazzi” follows Kaylee Greer as she captures the personality of adoptable dogs with her incredible photography skills, in hopes that it helps their chance of finding a home.
We had the amazing opportunity to learn more about Kaylee’s passion-driven journey from dog-lover to photographer, to reality TV star and it is a truly inspiring one. She also gave us a sneak peek into the season premiere and what viewers should expect from the first season.
Dogs have always held a special place in Kaylee’s heart.
“I remember running across the street screaming my little tiny head off every time 5-year-old me would see a dog walk past the front of my house with his owner,” she told Liftable, a brand of The Western Journal. “I would squeal with delight and find the most beautiful kind of peace when I would run my little hands across the fur of a happy, wagging dog. That feeling has never gone away.”
There’s no way 5-year-old Kaylee could’ve known that the peace she felt with dogs would soon translate into her life’s passion: dog photography.
Kaylee first started her photography business, Dog Breath Photography, eight years ago when she was “searching for a dream.” She told Liftable that she found that dream under an oak tree.
She had been volunteering at MPSCA, a local animal shelter in the Boston-area, for a few weeks: walking the dogs, cleaning their kennels and singing sweet songs to uplift their spirits.
“When I first began helping out at the shelter, all I knew was that I wanted to be around dogs, to try and give those sweet homeless animals some semblance of love and human affection while they were waiting so patiently behind the bars of their cages for someone to come and change their fate forever,” she told Liftable.
But soon she would learn that it was her journey that was going to be forever changed.
One rainy afternoon, while sitting on a grassy hill under an oak tree with an adoptable pup, she realized exactly what her heart had been itching to do.
“It hit me: Why couldn’t I use my camera to tell these dogs’ stories to the world? Why couldn’t I use my camera to give a voice to a dog who otherwise had no voice to speak for himself? That’s the day when I realized that a photograph has the power and the potential to change a life. And so, after that moment, I started to bring my camera in with me, and the rest is history.”
That was when Dog Breath Photography was born.
Her business has grown in unexpected ways since then. Kaylee describes it as a “wild ride.”
She has worked for shelters all over the country and the world, for private clients, and has taught dog photography workshops. She has shot commercial campaigns for well-known brands in the pet industry and had her work featured internationally in magazines and on various products.
She has photographed dogs in Costa Rica, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, England, Italy, France and Australia.
Her business even led her to meet her own “wiggling, waggling sausage shaped dream dog.” She met her dog, Joshua, while taking photos for the MPSCA.
“He was emaciated. Skin and bones. Brought in on an abuse case from a nearby city, after being chained to the wall with scraps for food, covered in his own waste,” she said. “But the sparkle that somehow still lived brightly in his eyes – against every odd in the book – brought me to my knees with gratitude for the purity and forgiveness of dogs.”
The two have been together for six years. “He is truly the light in all the darkness. He’s the fire inside my heart that burns brightest and keeps me going even through the hardest parts.”
She is extremely thankful for all the wild turns her business has taken and is even more excited for the next one.
Dog Breath Photography and its mission caught the attention of a production company called High Noon Entertainment. They are known for shows like HGTV’s “Fixer Upper” and Food Network’s “Cake Boss.”
When High Noon Entertainment first wanted to reach out to Kaylee, she was volunteering with an animal shelter in Costa Rica. She was nervous that she wouldn’t be able to find a strong enough wi-fi connection to withstand the entire conversation, but was eventually able to locate “decent wi-fi.”
She said she “didn’t move an inch, and luckily was able to stay connected on the call long enough to finish our conversation. Now that we’re just a day away from the premiere of that show we dreamed of together on the phone that day, I’m pretty grateful for that jungle wi-fi.”
“In just 1 day, this crazy adventure will dance to a place I never thought it could go – to a television near you,” she told Liftable. “I’m humbled and grateful beyond words to Nat Geo WILD and High Noon Entertainment for seeing a girl with a camera, a dog, and a dream, and believing in means my mission with their whole hearts. It’s completely surreal, and I think I am going to go pinch myself now.”
When asked what viewers should expect from a normal episode Kaylee said, “These episodes are filled up with so much genuine happiness and magic – the kind of magic that only dogs could bring you.”
“In every episode, we meet a shelter dog with an absolutely incredible story. We pluck a dog out of obscurity from the very back of a shelter cage and we do our absolute best to change his fate forever. We make him a star. We give him a photo shoot to capture his true personality, and we share that photo with the world, so we can help find him the second chance that he so deserves.”
“You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. You’ll ask yourself all over again: ‘What did we ever do to deserve dogs?'”
The season premiere, which airs on Nat Geo WILD on Saturday, Sept. 15, 2018, at 10/9c, will be two hours long. It is one of Kaylee’s favorite stories featured on the show so far.
“It’s about a Pit Bull who is single-handedly destroying stereotypes and spreading an indescribable kind of magic everywhere he goes,” she shared with Liftable. “I cried (happy tears!) through about 90 percent of the time we were on-location with that angel dog – and I absolutely cannot wait for you to meet him and hear his unbelievable story.”
As if her story wasn’t inspiring enough, Kaylee left us with one final piece of encouragement: “Nothing is impossible. If something lights you on fire and you believe in it with everything in your heart, get out there and chase it furiously, unapologetically and relentlessly. The fact is, dreams really do come true.”
Don’t forget to tune in to Nat Geo WILD’s newest show, “Pupparazzi,” on Saturday, Sept. 15, 2018, at 10/9c to follow Kaylee as she so brilliantly tells the stories of some adorable, adoptable pups.
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